Sprinter De Grasse eager to lay down marker

LONDON: Andre de Grasse looked the heir apparent to Usain Bolt as he won three Olympic medals in 2016, but the Canadian lines up at the Birmingham Diamond League meeting on Sunday needing establish himself again. The 24-year-old will contest the 100 metres, an event that is still seeking a successor to Bolt as the undisputed master. Testament to Bolt’s greatness is that, almost 10 years to the day since the Jamaican set the 100 metres world record at the world championships in Berlin, his time of 9.58 seconds still stands as the mark to beat. De Grasse has been deprived of the chance to match himself against the world’s current fastest man, Christian Coleman, who has run 9.81sec this year. The American has withdrawn from Sunday’s meeting offering the opaque explanation that he cannot compete as “a result of complications occurring after practice this week”. De Grasse, though, is delighted to be back and injury and illness free. A torn hamstring cost him appearances at the 2017 world championships in London — Bolt’s farewell on the big stage — and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He suffered a bout of glandular fever last summer and has had to sit by and watch Coleman, who also ran the fastest 100m last year, steal the limelight and take over the heavy mantle.